The gaming landscape continues to evolve at breakneck speed, and episode 129 of the Game Junction Podcast captures this momentum perfectly. We kick things off with an impressive showcase of our latest acquisitions - Brandon's Pokemon Platinum find and extensive Pokemon card haul sits alongside Mark's treasure trove of retro and modern gaming gems, including the Atari 7800 Plus and rare Japanese imports.

The industry news this week hits particularly hard, starting with EA's sweeping layoffs and the heartbreaking cancellation of the next Titanfall game. We unpack what this means for beloved franchises and the developers who create them. In a surprising turn, we also explore one of the strangest gaming partnerships in recent memory - the collaboration between a popular Japanese horse racing mobile game and the actual Kentucky Derby. These unexpected cultural crossovers highlight gaming's expanding influence beyond traditional boundaries.

Nintendo Switch 2 developments take center stage as we analyze the recent firmware update that enabled game sharing functionality - a clear precursor to the upcoming console's capabilities. We also dive deep into the controversy surrounding Ghost of Yotei's preorders, particularly the collector's edition that doesn't include a physical game copy - a growing trend that has physical media enthusiasts concerned.

The episode takes a serious turn when we discuss Xbox's shocking price increase announcement. With consoles jumping up to $600 and

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Bonfire Merch:
How's it going?
We are back for the GameJunction Podcast, episode 129.
We got Mark with us.
How's it going?
Man, it's doing pretty good,how you doing, brandon Doing
pretty good.
It's been a week, but you knowit's a lot of interesting gaming
news, a lot of pickups thisweek.

(00:24):
That's about it, yeah.

Mark Trobough (00:29):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, got some decent pickups.
Some stuff hasn't come in yetand it's just been an
interesting week as far as thenews goes and I guess maybe some
of the pickups.
Yeah, do you want to just getright into that?

Brandon Hurles (00:44):
Yeah, if you have yours, go ahead, because I
could get behind all in a pilereal quick give me just a second
.

Mark Trobough (00:53):
I'm gonna tell you like five things at the same
time.
No, you're good, but I did geta few things, some today, some
technically last weekend.
So I will, because we alwayshave retro stuff at the local
GameStop and I was looking forfor games for Brandon.
I found one of like two Switchgame or not, switch to DS air

(01:16):
games I was still looking for.
It was the only Pokemon onethat they had this one and
obviously they usually sometimesGameStop still will actually
actually have the whole box.
Sometimes they don't.
This one was just out in theout and about but it was like
probably one of the one of thebetter pokemon games ever made.
That was the platinum version.
I know my camera doesn't reallydo a whole well at auto

(01:37):
focusing.
Love that game sought after.
That's one of the one of thebig ones I have to.
I have to get a box, uh lateryeah, that one's gonna be too
much yeah, one of the things Ipicked up um, I can't, I'm only
missing the fourth one.
Now it's a pikmin 3 deluxegreat game.
And I also picked up a gamethat I had, but just digitally,

(01:59):
but I wanted it physical was, uh, pokemon, arceus or csr.
You want to say and I guesstechnically.
A few other things that Ipicked up at walmart and it was
like the last copies they hadand I I wasn't the biggest fan
of attack on titan, but they hadthe first three seasons on the
blu-ray, the steelbooks oh nice,so I was like I'll just pick
them up.

Brandon Hurles (02:19):
I who knows if I'll ever actually get around to
watching them we were prettybig on it at first, but it went
downhill pretty quick.

Mark Trobough (02:26):
The first season.
I know it gets kind of weird.
I'm like, eh, whatever it waslike.

Brandon Hurles (02:30):
I love the first season.
I love the first season, butyeah, it kind of went downhill
for me.

Mark Trobough (02:35):
I haven't watched this since like 2012, so 2012,
2013, whenever it first came out.
Do you own any of the pokemonanime?

Brandon Hurles (02:48):
physically.
Yet I think it's just the the,the one that I showed you a
while ago, because I saw todaythe x and y one at walmart.
It was on sale, um, I didn'tpick it up, but I didn't want to
go back and pick it up yeah, soit's the indigo league, because
they had, like, the wholeIndigo League, but it wasn't on
the list Tales of Lugia 2000 andsomething else.

Mark Trobough (03:10):
It was like a three movie collection DVD that
I bought at Walmart a while agonice might have to go back
several episodes to figure thatout okay, so I guess I can start
with mine.

Brandon Hurles (03:24):
This is all the non-pokemon card stuff.
Uh, first I finally.
I've been wanting to get itsince launch, but I'm glad I
waited because I saved like 40bucks.
But I got the atari 7800 plusand then, if you remember, I got
the set the uh secondcontroller a little while ago,
so I got two controllers for it.
Um, the one reason that I heldoff on this for so long is that

(03:46):
I can't use my 7800 game driveon it and I only have a few
physical 7800 games.
But, um, they are putting outlike new ones.
So, like, I'll probably likebuy like the new releases that
they're doing to play on this.
It's unfortunate the game drivedoesn't work on this.
It's like really unfortunate,because that would be the
premier way to play.
It has HDMI and stuff like that.

(04:07):
But, yeah, for the price Like Isaid, $40 off.
I've been wanting to get it fora while.
I like the 7800 Alright, notvery interesting, but they are
all game related Because they'refor a bunch of Everdrives.
I still need more too.
I need probably 15 more.
But I got a Micro SD card, twoMicro SD cards, two Micro SD

(04:36):
cards, probably all the Micro.

Mark Trobough (04:38):
SD cards and four .

Brandon Hurles (04:39):
Micro SD cards in there, christ and I still
need a bunch more.
Okay, and then, game-wise,let's see what we got.
First, we got this one's calledunahara kawase bazooka for the
ps4.
It's a game I've been wantingto get for a while.
It's kind of like a uh, smashbrothers party game, a little

(05:02):
bit like, um, this game's on thedreamcast, I can't remember,
but it's like a.
It's like a party-esque game,if you will.
It's something that, like meand my daughter, probably enjoy
playing.
Uh, I finally picked up myfavorite platformer of all time,
my favorite 2d platformer, andthat is gimmick.
That got put out on switch.
It's originally an nes andfamicom game, uh, but this is

(05:25):
the special edition that limitedrun games put out that's thing
for 10 bucks, bro, and, uh, thisis my favorite 2d platformer
ever, so I'm really happy to getthat.
This one was, uh, I knowabsolutely nothing about this
game.
I sent you a picture of it.
It was ten dollars, so it waslike ten dollar switch game.
It's about idols um, it's arhythm action idol adventure, uh

(05:49):
, but it's called I chew chibiedition and it was ten bucks.

Mark Trobough (05:56):
So I think at that point, what well you know
why not uh.

Brandon Hurles (06:01):
And then I got screen protectors for the switch
too, for when it comes.
So I already have the game onthat.
It comes with three, so itshould be good for the whole
time because I still have theoriginal screen protector on my
Switch I have.
Now I never even switch it outbecause I take good care of
myself.
But when I got that it went upon Amazon it's cheap.

(06:22):
So I was like, yeah, I'll getit and it's tempered glass, so
it's a.
It's the better kind.
I got the best kind, the bestkind, and let's see what.
What Mr Coffee say Xbox pricedrop, gta coming out any day now
.
Then I got the Saru opticaldrive emulator for the Sega

(06:44):
Saturn.
I ordered this probably aboutfour months ago.
It finally came in from JTStudio, so really happy about
that.
But now I can play all my SegaSaturn games right on a cart,
don't have to worry about thecrazy prices of the games for
the system, and you can loadthem all up on this cart for
your Sega Saturn.
So I'm super happy about that.

(07:05):
And then I picked this up.
I already had Monster HunterStories 2, but Monster Hunter
Stories 1 was a 3DS game, so Ipicked this two-pack up.
It's $20.
It's got both the games in itso that I have it on Switch and
can play it on there.

Mark Trobough (07:24):
I think I got one of those, but it only had the
second one.
The first that I have it onSwitch and can play it on there.
I got that.
I think I got one of those, butit only had the second one.
The first one I have to go buydigitally because it didn't have
the card still in it.
It was already redeemed becauseI bought it used.

Brandon Hurles (07:33):
Yeah, the unfortunate part is that for
some reason Monster HunterStories 2 is a digital download
on it, but you only get Stories1 on the card.
But I guess that's the one thatI mostly cared about.
I already have the other one.
I'll just sell it because, well, maybe I won't because I guess
it's not physical on this, but Iwanted to have stories one on

(07:55):
the switch, since it was stuckon the three DS.
And if you love Pokemon, you'lllove these games.
These are basically juststraight up Pokemon games, super
, super fun, way different thanthe traditional monster hunter
they're.
They're just like a lot of fun.
Um, finally, I don't know, ittook so long for me to get this.
I really wanted to get it onswitch, not ps4, but uh, it's
because they were likeoriginally mobile games on the

(08:16):
gba and stuff.
So I wanted it on switch butunfortunately it just only went
on sale on ps4 and that'smegaman battle network Legacy
Collection.
Pick that up.
If I still find it on Switchfor a good price, I'll still buy
it again because it's myfavorite series.
Then this one I bought for agoof because I wanted to show
you to see if you remember thisCartoon Network show.

(08:37):
It was $10,.
By the way, it doesn't lookgreat.
It comes with a bunch ofgoodies, though.
It comes with a bunch ofgoodies Stickers.
What's it about?
Let me see if I can guess it.
It's about spies.
That's just too vague.
I mean it's in the name of theshow.

(09:01):
Spy for a spy, no.

Mark Trobough (09:05):
Yeah, I've got no idea totally spies oh my god
was that a cartoon network show,or is that yeah?

Brandon Hurles (09:14):
yeah, right, yeah, it's a cartoon network
show for sure.

Mark Trobough (09:16):
Yeah, I mean, my sister watched it all the time
you said spies a little bit morehint, it would probably would
have helped.
I'm like spies, like nothingcomes to mind.

Brandon Hurles (09:24):
It was 10 bucks.
So it comes as a bunch ofgoodies, it doesn't?
It looks like it looks likeit's like an okay game, but it
was 10 bucks.
So this one I bought forwhenever we decided to stream it
, which is a star troopersextermination, and I still got
it.
That's what I meant.
I still need to pick upHelldivers 2 because I know
we're going to stream that atsome point too.

(09:45):
I went ahead and picked it upbecause there was a deal on it
and I knew we were going tostream it.
I was like, yeah, why not?
Something I'd want to have aphysical of.
I like the franchise.
Last two I got Call of DutyBlack Ops 3 on PS4 and PS3.
This is the gold edition.
This goes towards the completecollection.

Mark Trobough (10:08):
Brandon's out here doing the Lord's work.
I command Brandon to get everysingle physical copy of Call of
Duty.
What's your next task afterthat?
You going to go for Call ofDuty next.

Brandon Hurles (10:21):
What.

Mark Trobough (10:22):
Not Call of Duty but Medal of Honor.
Sorry.

Brandon Hurles (10:25):
Probably not.
I think I want to leave it atcall of duty, that's.
That's enough of a task.
I'm not even.
I'm still at battlefield aswell.
F that man.
No, I'm good on.
The pokemon is the only otherone I'm.
Hey, what's up?
Uh, uh, tj wicks, how's itgoing?
Um, should I show the Pokemonstuff, because there's a lot?

Mark Trobough (10:46):
Yeah, why not?
Are you sure?
Are you afraid someone's goingto rob you?
You can grab what you want toshow.
You don't have to necessarilygrab everything, just the big
stuff you want.

Brandon Hurles (10:59):
Alright, I got this Paldia Adventure Chest.
It comes with seven promo cards, six TCG booster packs and a
bunch of other stuff Squishy Toy, pikachu Mini Portfolio, one
sheet of text stickers, codecard for Pokemon, tcg Live and a

(11:19):
couple other things.
They only got one of these in,so I was like I've never seen it
before, so I grabbed it.
I think I've it before, so when?

Mark Trobough (11:25):
I grabbed it.
I think I think I've seen thosebefore, but I never I never
bothered to pick one up.

Brandon Hurles (11:28):
Well, like the promo cards was the main reason
that I want.
I mean, you get six packs too,but the promo cards are
exclusive to that, so that waspretty cool.
I got tens for both, both ofthese guys, for Scarlet and
Violet.
So I don't again, I don't knowwhat's good and what's not good.
I think those tens.

Mark Trobough (11:49):
Usually what I've got is you get them for the pro
If you like, the promo card onthe front, and then you get the
booster packs.
That's really all that's.
That's in those it's outside ofthe booster packs.
You get those probably for the,for the, for the promo.

Brandon Hurles (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, which I mean?
I like the design of the promocards.

Mark Trobough (12:07):
So, yeah, they're pretty, pretty cool.
So I think that's why mostpeople buy those.
They also buy the, the bigboxes.
You're buying those, not forthe packs I mean, some people
probably are, but it's the, it'sthe promo cards, because you
can only get those promo cardsin this thing.
Promo cards usually specific tolike one very one specific type
of packaging well, got two, two, I've got two more tens, I

(12:28):
think I had those two before Ican't remember off the top of my
head, back when they were easyto obtain.
Now they're just, for whateverreason, impossible to find.
Places like GameStop juststopped selling them outright,
my first trainer box ever.
That's usually what most peoplego after, because you're
getting like a nine.

Brandon Hurles (12:46):
I know.

Mark Trobough (12:47):
One of the biggest bang for your buck.

Brandon Hurles (12:51):
Buddy Roman from Facebook.
Oh hey, what's up?
Appreciate you coming to hangout.
Yeah, they didn't get anytrainer boxes in today.

Mark Trobough (12:58):
I ordered this online, yeah, but usually those
boxes are like the most bang foryour buck.

Brandon Hurles (13:02):
It's what people want the most, because you get
extra stuff if you want to playthe games.

Mark Trobough (13:05):
You get some sleeves.
You get the most packs Bang foryour buck with your packs as
well, as you get the littlebooklet that has like every card
in it and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles (13:13):
Yeah, because it comes with nine packs.
That's pretty good.

Mark Trobough (13:16):
So like if you're just going for packs outside of
buying them individually,usually the best bang ETB is
what they call them.
I can't remember off the top ofmy head.

Brandon Hurles (13:29):
Yeah, I got this Houndstone EX box.

Mark Trobough (13:33):
If only I cared about that.
Pokemon.
Sorry, I'm not the biggest fan.

Brandon Hurles (13:36):
I got most of these for the packs.
I don't yeah.

Mark Trobough (13:39):
Usually those have different types of they got
packs but unlike the ETBs,they've got different sets of
packs.
Yeah, In that one you hadthey're all gonna be the that
set packs for usually in thoseones you have different sets and
stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles (13:54):
So yeah, this one.
I'm not sure this is a crownzenith, but uh, pikachu v max
premium collection oh yeah, thebig one, the big promo cards.
You gotta get a big sleep forthat I got a couple of the big
cards already.
Then I got Crown ZenithRegieleki I don't even know Is
that how you say it, Regieleki?

(14:14):
Which one?
The electric Reggie?
I'm not sure how you say it, tobe honest.

Mark Trobough (14:21):
You're probably close.

Brandon Hurles (14:23):
But yeah, I got that one.

Mark Trobough (14:31):
This one here oh, you got the fucking, oh you got
the uh stations.
I mean this where you're goodoh, I forgot a game too.

Brandon Hurles (14:39):
Uh, and then two of these because they were
discounted.
I don't care about the pokemonat all, but I just got it for
the packs they were.
They were discounted.
I don't care about the Pokemonat all, but I just got it for
the packs.
They were super discounted.
I think I paid $10 a piece onthem.

Mark Trobough (14:51):
Oh, it's dirt cheap at that point you don't
have to make money just on thepacks alone.
Yeah, you get four packs each.

Brandon Hurles (14:56):
I got that.
Then I have one more game whichis a collector's edition.
This is Silent Hope day oneedition, uh, for the switch, and
it's like a dungeon crawling,uh, action rpg game.

Mark Trobough (15:09):
So that's it for the pickups.
I'm big.
I picked up pokemon cards inmonths because I can't I can't
ever find them in stock Iactually have two more bags of
pokemon cards I didn't show, sohold on, let me.

Brandon Hurles (15:23):
at least you're gonna spend six months just
saving up on them, that way youcan.
I actually have two more bagsof Pokemon cards I didn't show,
so Hold on, you're going tospend six months, just saving up
on them.

Mark Trobough (15:28):
That way you can just spend like two days opening
packs.

Brandon Hurles (15:31):
Let me at least show just like one of each thing
out of these Got this.
All of the lunchboxes yeah, itcomes with six booster packs,
three flow cards, so it wasn'tbad for the price.

(15:52):
With the booster packs it waslike it wasn't much so.
And then these ones I took atotal gamble on.
But there's a reason I bought.
I don't know if they're good atall or not, but the reason I
bought them is because myfavorite set is Neo Discovery.
It was a set that I really,really loved and my grandma had
bought me the imported the promobinder for the first cards that

(16:16):
came out for Neo Discovery fromJapan.
She imported it for me andthey're these mystery power
boxes and apparently it's gotneo discovery on it.
I bought four of them.
So I don't know if they're anygood, but you get looks like you
get five booster packs, so andone of them can be a like a
retro pack, but at that boughtthis just three packs.

(16:39):
Nice, this one here, mysteryPack 2, it's got Team Rocket 1
on it and then, yeah, that's it.
So Not very many cards, butJust unique stuff, I suppose.

(17:02):
So Alright, what do we got goingon with the news?

Mark Trobough (17:06):
I mean, I guess, the first big thing that dropped
this week.
I don't care about giving youmy money.
Ea is laying off a bunch ofpeople and they're shutting down
development of the nextTitanfall game oh boy cause.
I think that was Respawn.
They were like what EA cutaround.
They said 300 to 400 jobs andabout 100 of them were at

(17:28):
respawn and they're like cutting, canceling development on the
next Titanfall game.
All that stuff's coming outDang.
So I mean the news of layoffshas slowed down, but not
completely.

Brandon Hurles (17:41):
Yeah, I like to say I'm surprised, but I mean,
it is EA, and Titanfall is apretty good series too.

Mark Trobough (17:47):
You know they're good games yeah it's uh
unfortunate, but it is ea, soI'm not can't say I'm shocked
and you gotta gotta maintainthat, uh, that profit margin off
of their fifa and madden gamesand stuff like that, yeah,
exactly I, exactly I guessthey're not calling it FIFA
anymore, but that's still onMcCall, because that's

(18:07):
essentially what it is FC orwhatever they're trying to call
it now.
Yeah, whatever they call it.
I can't remember I guess itsucks for whoever lost their
jobs, but not completelyunsurprising.
They've definitely slowed downsince this time last year, but
they're still around, mr.

Brandon Hurles (18:25):
Coffee said what I heard.
Respawn was announcingTitanfall four.

Mark Trobough (18:30):
Not anymore, they're not.
I just got the ax, got the.

Brandon Hurles (18:36):
Oh my the ax.

Mark Trobough (18:38):
He's like this isn't going to make money for a
decade, why bother I?

Brandon Hurles (18:42):
mean, titanfall was a pretty popular uh
franchise when it came out, butit's just like they I only ever
played the first one, so I feellike they didn't put enough of
them out to make it like youknow series yeah, like you know,
you only got two games, so itjust felt like they weren't
pumping them out enough to getit out there in the mainstream

(19:03):
like they're popular.
I remember when titanfall onecame out, people were obsessed
with it and I thought it waspretty good.
I didn't like love it oranything, but I thought there
was.
I thought they were both greatgames, but they just didn't put
enough out to keep the seriesalive.
So I don't know.

Mark Trobough (19:20):
Yeah, I mean it's .
I guess it's unfortunate.
I yeah, I mean I guess it'sunfortunate.
I was never a fan of the series, but I mean that's just me, yep
, just you.
I guess in a little bit happierstuff.
If you're into Christmasornaments, hallmark's putting
out some stuff, this is a little360 thing you can hang on your

(19:42):
Christmas tree next year.
They're missing something here,as far as what the image is,
yeah, go back to the Xbox.

Brandon Hurles (19:50):
It's supposed to be red.

Mark Trobough (19:52):
Oh my God, this guy.
I mean, yeah, if you had thisversion, if you had the later
versions.

Brandon Hurles (19:58):
Yeah, that's why I said, with that version it's
supposed to be red.

Mark Trobough (20:02):
Those are cool, though I'd pick those.
Though version it's supposed tobe red, I pick yeah, they are
neat, neat collect.

Brandon Hurles (20:07):
Yeah, that one's really cool little one.

Mark Trobough (20:09):
Yeah, that's the one brands in beginning, for
sure that's cool Mario, and thenjust a pink, yeah pass on that
one, but yeah, that's not it'snot the Minecraft one, it's the
Minecraft movie version of it.
Even worse, that's what I'msaying.
If you're really into christmasornaments, uh, I guess, hop on

(20:29):
the pre-orders now.
Apparently I don't know howthey do orderments.
They just say, hey, we'reselling these.
I don't know either.
Then you get amish country tobuy your christmas stuff because
that's where the store is at,did?
you say amish country yeah,there's always like a christmas
store there there is, I loveamish country it.

Brandon Hurles (20:45):
Yeah.
There's always like a Christmasstore there.
There is I love Amish country.
It's fun, All right.
So we got Psy Games ties inactivation for its horse-themed
video game to Kentucky Derbydeal, yeah so the Kentucky Derby
the 151st one starts.

Mark Trobough (21:01):
I think it starts today.
It's running through thisweekend.
Okay, derby the 151st onestarts.
I think it starts today andit's running through this
weekend.
Okay, I think they were saidthey were doing this for uh,
specifically for the femalehorse races.
From when I was saw some otherstuff, uh, but essentially
they're using uh, this game,game slash anime, it's called
umamusume or whatever it'scalled.

(21:22):
Pretty, derby, essentially it'sboth a show and a mobile game.
Apparently it's like one of thetop, if not, it periodically
hits number one, is like themost profitable mobile game in
japan.
It's a really popular game.
I can bring up a trailerbecause at the same time they
announced uh, not thisspecifically, but but they
pretty much announced that theactual mobile games coming to

(21:47):
the US.
I think it's sometime middle ofthe month, next month,
essentially.
So if you're into Horse Girlsand gacha games, that's your
whole thing.
But they were essentiallypartnering with the Kentucky
Derby at the.
What was it essentially called?
The?

Brandon Hurles (22:02):
Churchill Downs, essentially.

Mark Trobough (22:06):
Essentially as a partnership to advertise for the
game, and it makes sense.
The game's pretty much justgirls horse racing.
That's like the whole point ofthis, of the show and of the
game essentially I made anexception for playing a mobile
game.

Brandon Hurles (22:18):
I haven't played it yet, but I tagged you and
it's a.
It's a bomber man, uh, it's ohyeah, I didn't see that, yeah, I
want to.
I want to try it out, justbecause it's bar man and I.

Mark Trobough (22:26):
It's nothing like big.

Brandon Hurles (22:27):
I just thought it was funny that all this uh
mobile game that's about horsegirls racing is uh being
advertised at the kentucky derbyI don't know if that's the
right audience, that's gonna buyyeah, I don't think kentuckians
are uh gonna quite understandwhat's going on, but yeah
because it comes out next month.

Mark Trobough (22:47):
Uh, because, yeah , because the game came out in
2021.
I think it was supposed to comeout in 2018, when the anime
originally was supposed to comeout the same year.
Essentially, yeah, I think theanime was being used as an
advertisement for the show and Ithink it got later seasons, but
it got delayed for for whateverreason, essentially, and it's
one of their uh, one of theirtop.
Well, it's one of their top.
It's one of the top-profitingmobile games in Japan, which is

(23:09):
not really all that surprising.
But if you're into horse racing.
You like playing games on yourphone?
I mean, it's a thing.
I just thought it was funny.
Did I read that right KentuckyDerby in anime, like what's
going on?

Brandon Hurles (23:25):
Anime seems to be collabing with everything
these days.
It's funny.

Mark Trobough (23:29):
Gotta expand your market and make that money,
baby.
Oh yeah, Pokemon cards areessentially gacha.
It's just a physical version ofgacha.

Brandon Hurles (23:40):
No doubt.

Mark Trobough (23:42):
It's all the same thing.

Brandon Hurles (23:43):
Pretty much, yeah, it's like a mobile game.
Pretty much, yeah, pretty much.

Mark Trobough (23:45):
Until Brian doesn't care.
He's like I'm mobile game, I'mout, I'm out.

Brandon Hurles (23:49):
All right, so we got.
Sony could be working on abiometric PS5 controller.
According to their latestpatent, it reveals a biometric
controller capable of readingthe chemical levels found on a
player's skin.
The controller could use lightsensors to detect compounds in
the skin like cortisol, andwould adjust difficulty levels

(24:11):
accordingly.
It's unclear if the device willever make it to the production
stage.

Mark Trobough (24:16):
This just sounds like hey, this is a neat idea.
In practicality, I don't knowhow this would ever actually
work.

Brandon Hurles (24:23):
It's like are your hands getting sweaty?

Mark Trobough (24:26):
you know like yeah, because I'm holding a
piece of plastic and I may ormay not be warm in my house,
something like that.
Like who knows, I sweat.
My hands have occasionallysweat when I'm not even really
trying that hard.
It's just you know, you'reholding a piece of plastic and
it gets hot yeah, I don't know.

Brandon Hurles (24:42):
I mean it's interesting for sure.
I mean it sounds likeinteresting technology, but like
that I can't imagine this.

Mark Trobough (24:50):
This could ever actually work.
And even if it theoreticallycould work, it could work at an
affordable price.
It's not like a thousanddollars for a controller.

Brandon Hurles (24:57):
Yeah, I mean I don't.
And then, based on what they'retalking about, that means the
games have to be programmed towork with a specific thing.
And well, how many gamecompanies are really going to
care?
I don't.
And then, based on what they'retalking, about.

Mark Trobough (25:03):
That means the games have to be programmed to
work with a specific thing.
How many game companies arereally going to care to program
this into a controller that 99%of their player base isn't going
to have?
Controllers are essentiallyalready $100 baseline.
Now how much more is this wholebiometric scanner going to cost
?
Even if they just added theability for a, a fingerprint

(25:24):
scanner, it would jack the priceup by like 50 and no one's
buying it yeah, I, I just don'teven know.

Brandon Hurles (25:31):
I mean it's, it's interesting technology, for
sure yeah, at like the r&dlevel.

Mark Trobough (25:36):
It's interesting, but implemented in the games
like I that I don't know, I meanyeah, this just sounds like a
neat r&d thing that you do forresearch, but you would never
actually you'd never actuallymake it past that.
Yeah, I mean, I cause I justdid this, I'm just like it.
It financially just wouldn'tmake sense.
It'd be too expensive.

Brandon Hurles (25:56):
Yeah, it would definitely be expensive.
Uh, it looks like we got, sogot.
It looks like we also got XboxGame Pass.
We'll be losing at least eightgames coming May 15th, which are
Brothers, a Tale of Two Sons,chance of Cinar Dune, spice Wars
, haunty, jurassic World,evolution 2, little Kitty, big

(26:17):
City, planet Lana and the BigCon.
So it looks like all those aregoing to be leaving, uh, here
pretty soon.

Mark Trobough (26:25):
So you know pros and cons of uh, of a
subscription-based game serviceyeah, unfortunately,
unfortunately I don't know, Idon't, I don't think any of
those games really once I reallycared about to be fair or ever
I I most of these I neveractually even really heard of

(26:45):
outside of Tale of Two Sons.
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to saythis is only like a three-hour
game, so Only one of thesebreaks 10 hours of gameplay time
and that's the Spice Wars at 11hours.

Brandon Hurles (27:00):
We also got Ghost of Yotei went up for
pre-order today and uh shows, uhpre-order bonuses, as well as
the collector's edition that youcan get.
The problem with thecollector's edition is you do
not get a physical game, ofcourse, which is just like
what's the point?

Mark Trobough (27:15):
so they're just like trying to just get extra
money out of you, like if you'regonna sell the the collector's
edition like sell the game withit, especially if it's a
physical version of this.

Brandon Hurles (27:24):
That's why I'm just gonna get the base game,
because it's just stupid.
I'm not gonna sorry, I'm notgonna buy a collector's edition
to get a code.
It's just dumb.

Mark Trobough (27:32):
But uh, you got like if there's something in
there, the only thing that'seven remotely cool would be kind
of like the mask.

Brandon Hurles (27:37):
But the mask is cool I mean like the collector's
edition itself is pretty coolbut it's not cool that it
doesn't come with the game otherthan the download code.
So I'll pass.
I'd rather have it physically.

Mark Trobough (27:47):
What if you'd have to buy the physical game
again for another $70?

Brandon Hurles (27:51):
Yeah, I'm just not going to do that.
But yeah, I did go up forpre-order.
I pre-ordered it on Amazonbecause it didn't charge, so you
shit.
But yeah, I mean, I'm prettyexcited for the game.
I'm pretty excited for the game.
Hopefully they didn't DEI thecrap out of it or any of that
crap, because I love theprevious game a lot.
I think it's one of the bestsamurai games ever made.

(28:13):
I do hope that this game isjust as good.

Mark Trobough (28:19):
To be fair, it's competition of shadows.
It's not a high bar.
It needs to climb to be betterthan.

Brandon Hurles (28:25):
Yeah, but there's a lot of samurai games
out there.
It's competition of shadows.
It's not a high bar.
It needs to climb to be betterthan yeah, but there's a lot of
Samurai games out there.
It's a really good one, but I'mjust going to get the standard
copy because I don't want itdigitally.
The collector's edition is cool, but don't get the game.
For me it's just going to be astandard copy, but I am looking
forward to this game.
It's cool that it went up forpre-order and stuff like that.

(28:46):
There are three differenteditions that you can get.
I know a lot of people don'tcare about physical, so the
digital deluxe edition might beyour go-to there, with all the
extras.

Mark Trobough (29:00):
The main thing is this is really what they have
for their extra stuff.

Brandon Hurles (29:02):
The mask is really cool.
It'd be a really cool displaypiece, but it's like you don't
even don't, doesn't come withthe game, like I'm just not
interested.
The god of war, ragnarok didthe same thing, didn't come with
the game.
Yeah, download.
Oh, here's a digital version.

Mark Trobough (29:16):
Like if I want this physical stuff, I want the
game.
Might as well, just give me thegame physical as well.

Brandon Hurles (29:19):
Like you're giving me everything else
physical, but the game like itmakes no sense to me.
I just can't comprehend it.

Mark Trobough (29:25):
I don't quite understand I mean to be fair,
like it's kind of neat, but likemost of the stuff would just
sit in a box on a shelf andpretty much.

Brandon Hurles (29:34):
That's how most collector's editions are.
Now, I mean, I don't evenbother with most collector's
editions anymore.

Mark Trobough (29:39):
Like, very much like very something specifically
, you know, like a, like afigure that I'd actually be able
to put out, exactly like.
Let's be fair, like art cardsare neat, but you're like, oh,
that's neat put it in, look atit once and never, ever open it
back up.

Brandon Hurles (29:53):
Yeah like.

Mark Trobough (29:54):
I mean to be fair .
Most, that's most of the time.
That's usually what happenswith a lot of this collector
stuff.
Yeah, like all my Borderlands 3collector's edition that I have
, just sits in a box in a cornerand just collects dust.

Brandon Hurles (30:07):
Yeah, Mr Coffee brought up about the Spider-Man
one.
Yeah, it didn't even come withthe code, which is crazy.
That was crazy, and it's stillsold out too, so it didn't even
come with the game at all.

Mark Trobough (30:21):
Like you know, just get screwed pretty much,
pretty much yeah.

Brandon Hurles (30:27):
So it looks like we also got Nintendo released a
hotfix for their version 20.0.0.
This resolved crashing issuesthat began taking place after
the recent new version.
The new update added the gameshare functionality, though this
can only be hosted on theSwitch 2, nintendo Switch 2 will

(30:48):
be released on June 5th.
So, yeah, this was just a hotfix to fix the version 20 that
came out recently.
Again, apparently there wassome issues with that and stuff.

Mark Trobough (31:01):
This is more in preparation for Switch 2 coming
out and stuff like that, butyeah, they're just trying to get
the updates out now so they canmake sure there's no bugs for
it.
Essentially yeah, which is good.
I mean, they're pretty much justkind of goes to show they're
using the same, uh, the samesoftware.
Uh, for the, for the switch tothat they're using for the same
one, essentially, yeah yeah.

(31:27):
So it's pretty much.
You know.
All book confirms I think wepretty much all we all knew this
as well.
At the same time they alsopretty much came out and they
didn't come out.
The actual share featureactually went live Cause I, I
just went in and just it waslike a quick little thing.
I was able to test it, move itfrom one switch to the other and
it did what it did.
And it did what it did.
It just made me able to play iton a console that didn't have
it downloaded, essentially, Ithink.
Well, it has to download thegame because it's still digital,

(31:47):
but essentially it moves itfrom your one console and it
play puts it on your other one.
That's just, yeah, only, um, soit's I.
I moved it from, I use it onthe same accounts.
It was technically I could havealready done that move my save
data over, read, download.
It was kind of, uh, pointless.
This is obviously designed forfor different accounts, but it's
, you know, it's astraightforward feature, it's

(32:09):
pretty easy.
The only thing you need to use.
The switches need to be, likeyou know, right next to each
other while you're doing it forthe initial swap over, and then
it starts.
If it isn't already on theother switch, it just starts
downloading it right then, andthen, once it's already
downloaded, you just swap thethe license back and forth right
, yeah, yeah so I mean it prettymuch kind of does what what
they explained it would do?

Brandon Hurles (32:30):
yeah, exactly, exactly so, uh, there's that
then.
Uh, we've also got umdiscussion on nintendo 2
achievements.
So apparently, game Rant postedan article on why they think
that the Nintendo Switch 2 won'thave achievements, said

(32:52):
Nintendo's big picture gamedesign philosophy may be the
reason why Switch 2 doesn't havethe system-wide achievements.
When asked about the lack of3DS achievements back in 2011, a
senior Nintendo official saidthe company's designers don't
tell users how to play the gamesin exchange for some kind of
mythical reward.
Given that Switch 2 will lack aunified achievement system,

(33:13):
that reasoning may still holdtrue 14 years later.

Mark Trobough (33:16):
So there isn't really much to say about that,
because there's no, I meanthere's some sort of
verification, but it's like Ikind of agree, achievements are
like it's like an artificialkind of agree like achievements
are like it's like a artificialway to track your progress and
or it can get it strapped fromyou, like I'm not playing the
game, I'm trying to get aspecific achievement which some
games it's grinding or likewhatever it.
I think it distracts from theenjoyment of a game.

(33:36):
If you have, uh, of anachievement tracker, I'm not the
biggest fan of it because, likeI always want to go towards it,
but I never chase them.
I don't have one it's such agrind for certain games where
they do their achievements,you're like, oh, okay, it's a
way they for people that goafter like 100% in a game.
It's an artificial way to padgameplay or to keep you playing

(34:00):
this game for longer than thenormal game would have allowed.
Yeah, it's fine, because it'sjust you do a quest and you to
keep you playing this game forlonger than the normal game
would have allowed, right, yeah,yeah, I mean, I'm glad it's
fine because it's just you do aquest and you get an achievement
, and it's not really, you don'treally go out of your way.
But sometimes it's like, oh,you need to do this a thousand
times or you know trade or dosomething else that either Some
are easy.
And then sometimes I thinkthere's an achievement on Steam

(34:22):
that I'm missing for RocketLeague, that I can't even get
anymore because they took outthe trade feature.
So it's just an achievement youjust can't get.
Now, granted, it's PC and youcan just artificially give
yourself achievements on Steamif you download software, so you
can just be like I 100% of thegame, that I have like an hour
play time in, but it's just oneof those things where it's just

(34:43):
like it's.
It just artificially gives yousomething to go after and pads
game time, and I think nintendodoes it right.
I don't think achievementsreally carry that much weight
and they're not really neededanymore, unless you're trying to
show off like I did all thesethings right.
I spent so much time on a gameto the point where I hated
because I needed this veryspecific achievement.
Yeah, especially formultiplayer games as well.

(35:05):
It's such a big, big pain.

Brandon Hurles (35:07):
Do you mind taking over for a minute?
I have an emergency, real quick.

Mark Trobough (35:10):
No, yeah, you're good.
Okay, all right, I'll be rightback guys.
Yeah, because I kind of see itas the way of essentially it's
just padding out time.
I think what I was.
What I was trying to say wasbecause there's, like for
multiplayer games, some of theachievements you have to grind
forever, especially on a gamethat essentially nobody plays
anymore, like I think for thefirst tomb raider game.

(35:32):
Uh, there's a multiplayer stuff.
There's like a lot ofachievements you have to do with
the multiplayer.
I'm like, well, nobody playsthat anymore, so you're probably
stuck trying to find otherpeople or just forever grind for
an achievement.
That is just not really worththe time to get put 100 hours in
for like 10 achievements,wholesale waste of time unless
you just really love the themost, play every game.
But I mean, if sony andmicrosoft went away from

(35:54):
achievements which they're notgoing to, it wouldn't I wouldn't
lose any sleep over it.
Uh, I guess.
Yeah, the, the next thing.
Uh, I saw this like I don't know, didn't know how to think about
it.
I think it just goes to showbecause brandon was talking
about uh, the, uh, some of thepokemon cards and it's.
It's just crazy.
With the scalpers it's hard tofind anymore.

(36:15):
Uh, apparently there was a uh,an owner who had a card I think
he was trying to sell it or do atrade or something like that
was essentially robbed of his$5,000, what they claim was
$5,000 Charizard card inAustralia, which is just insane.
Man who's trying to commitfelonious assault and theft for

(36:42):
a Pokemon card.
I mean, I get it like.
You know, five thousand eightthousand dollars is a decent
amount of money for some people,but like that's crazy.
Also means if you're gonna, ifyou're gonna, sell some of your
stuff, you should definitely becareful.
If you're gonna meet somebodyin in public to sell a card,
probably try to do that and Iwould assume the safest way

(37:04):
possible.
Or just do it online, sell iton eBay.
It's probably the easiest andsafest way to do it If people
are going to be this this crazyabout it.
Mr Coffee, it really sucks.
They locked achievements behindmultiplayer things.
Yeah, I just.
It's probably one of the one ofthe biggest pains for a lot of
these games.
In some games it's easy I thinkSkyrim it's not really that

(37:24):
hard to 100% the game.
You just do a bunch of quests.
But other games I'm trying toremember the name of a game real
quick.
It was a JRPG game.
I know we brought it up herebefore in the past.
I think I've talked about this.
Let me figure out what game itwas exactly, because it required
you like you get into the maingame, you get to like level 60,

(37:46):
level 70, and there'sachievements, hit a level 100,
and it's like just pure grind atthat point, just fighting like
the same monster over and overand over again.
Or you could pay actual moneyto just level up to level 100
for this achievement, which Iwas like that's so scummy.
It achievement which I was likethat's, that's so scummy.
Oh, it's tales, tales of a risehas like a, some achievements

(38:07):
where you just, if you didn'twant to pay money at least for
that one achievement, you'dspend probably another 50 hours
just grinding out to platinumthe game and it's just like, nah
, man, I'm good, it's not, it'snot worth the time.
You're just artificially uh,padding out, padding out
gameplay at that point for agame that's already, you know,
40 hours long, to just beat thestory anyways.
Uh, once a game deactivatesservers for online functionality

(38:30):
, they should just give you thetwo minutes, yeah, or just get
rid of them, or something likethat.
But there's a lot of gameswhere, if you want to do 100, if
the online servers aren't thereanymore, it's just there.
There's probably a decentamount of unattainable
achievements at this point forfor multiplayer games, uh,
depending on the cost of card.
People don't want to pay extrafees selling through ebay or

(38:50):
sites.
I don't know how much ebay doesbut either you need to to go
somewhere better or hopefullyyou're not willing to bring
somebody with you that's notgonna, like you know, steal it
from you.
It's just the risk of sellinganything physical in person and
stuff like that.
That that's not going to stealit from you, it's just the risk
of selling anything physical inperson and stuff like that that
somebody could try to steal it.
It's a pro and con thing.
It definitely sucks, but it'sprobably more of a.

(39:11):
Well, people shouldn't be likethis.
But people throw hands overPokemon cards at Walmart, so
this does not surprise me at all.
Then again, I would never sellany cards that I have because I
bought them for me.
I didn't buy them as aninvestment like some people do,
especially these scalpers not.

(39:32):
So that's so scummy, uh.
Well, come on, there we go.
Uh, hopefully brand gets backhere soon.
It's not nothing too bad.
Uh, 8-bit do is apparentlypausing shipments to the us
because of the the tariffs hadput on china, which are like 210

(39:54):
percent.
Uh, so they said thesecustomers can still buy their
products that have already beenimported, but they're, uh,
they're not shipping anythingfrom China.
So either they have to wait forthat issue to resolve it or
they've got to move theirproduction out of China.
Essentially, I was trying topick it up, yeah, because they

(40:16):
were doing some like differentcontrollers for 8, but I think
it's like the main thing.
They did different, differenttypes of controllers 8, but duo,
I bet they sell online becauseI want to complete a certain set
.
Yeah, yeah, that definitelymakes sense.
Uh, so I guess I can pull thisup real quick.
I think I've got the rightthing.

(40:36):
Uh, so these were like some ofthe controllers they were
selling and they weren't likeoverly expensive controllers.
But if you want to like, youknow second hand uh controller.
Uh, their ultimate 2c bluetoothswitch controller.
Uh, ultimate bluetoothcontroller with the charred
charging dock and then the wiredcontroller.
Essentially, uh, like how thebluetooth, just the, just the

(40:56):
bluetooth is like cheaper thanusually the a wired controller.
I mean it's for the xbox seriesx, uh, xbox, so yeah, it's two.
The Xbox Series X, xbox, soyeah, it's two Switch and then
an Xbox, at least from what theyhad listed here.
I guess.
Get it, while you can or justbuy a different brand of
controller, unless it'ssomething that you're really,
really into.

(41:19):
Scoffy was saying 8-bit do needto slow its production because
there's always anothercontroller.
Yeah, the second hand market'slike a dime a dozen because I
have the, uh, I bought it awhile ago.
It wasn't too bad.
I bought it because my pro wentout and I just at the time I
didn't want to spend the moneyon another pro controller, but
it was fine because you use itfor pc and for the switch, just
the, the candy one, uh, so youcan.

(41:41):
Obviously you can like changethe plate, plate on it or, sorry
, it's the candy con, so you canlike change the, the joys and
like the, the place of the, the,the directional pad, as well,
as you can get like differenttypes of face plates, which was
kind of neat.
It's also got the, the back padsthat I don't, I don't bother
using, and it was like 45, 50,something like that, 40 or 50,

(42:04):
whatever was priced out.
Over that they had a game stop.
So I mean, controllers are adime, a dozen, essentially, uh,
but it's, I mean they're,they're cheaper than anything
that you're going to get, youknow, first party.
But I still think, like thequality of the first party,
controllers are still better,especially for the switch, the
pro controller.
But but I mean you're, you'repaying a premium for it.

(42:24):
So, and then I can't rememberwhat it was, I can't remember
the brand of it, but I know thatyou're used to because I had
one for my PS4.
Uh, I think I spent 150, almost$200 on a third, on a third
party controller.
But the shoulder back bumpers, Iguess whatever you want to call

(42:45):
it were, I guess, more of anovelty, less common than what
they're becoming now, but theywere far more obviously designed
for shooters and stuff likethat to have quicker reaction
times.
It's just easier.
You have more access to buttonsthat you can map around.
That I spent, but I think thatwas back when I was still
playing Siege pretty regularly.
It's kind of the same for mymouse.

(43:06):
I'll just leave it plugged.
In this one, actually, thenameplate just comes off.
For this one it just kind ofcomes off, but you can get
different ones, whether it's theforward-backwards button or
this one, it's got the, I guesstechnically MMO, it's got the
yeah, my camera doesn but theone through zero buttons and
stuff like that, which for mostgames works for me, because it's
just an extra 12 buttons on thethumb that I can have, which I

(43:29):
find all that much more helpfulmyself.
But yeah, it is what it is, atleast in that side.
But on top of that there's someother stuff going on as well as
they.
They think that people aretalking about when you could, uh
, order the switch to GameCubecontroller.

(43:52):
Uh, so, from what they weresaying, if you get the invite
from, I don't know why that'sgoing on.
Oh.
Hey, I'm back to come back.
Yep, sorry about that, hey, no,you're we just talking about
the uh, the 8-bit do stuffyou're like, oh, you missed so,
oh, okay, yeah, but I guess theother big thing that was the uh,

(44:14):
uh, the switch to gamecubecontroller you can purchase from
may 8th to the 12th.
Uh, if you get the invite fromnintendo, because I thought this
was already live, or was it noton the other sites, do you know
?

Brandon Hurles (44:27):
no, it's not live yet.
I mean, okay, the only, uh, youhave to have a nintendo oh yeah
.

Mark Trobough (44:34):
So yeah, they say the the switch to the switch.
Online subscribers will haveaccess to it starting may, may
13th yeah, I'm I'm definitelygoing to buy one.

Brandon Hurles (44:42):
My I um bought one of all the other ones, but I
kept them sealed.
I would like, if it's possible,I'd like, to buy two, one to
use and one to keep.
They just look cool in thelittle they just display.

Mark Trobough (44:54):
Really cool, I think they're really nice, it's
a neat little little you knowbox and stuff like that and it's
just a bluetooth versionessentially of the game, because
I got a wired one for theswitch but I've only used it for
like two games but this I meanwith the switch.

Brandon Hurles (45:08):
Online game keeps still coming out.
I can see myself using it.

Mark Trobough (45:11):
Let's be fair like it's like a lot of these
older games, like they'redesigned for these controllers
in mind like the 64 they put outyou've got.

Brandon Hurles (45:18):
You gotta use that controller because it just
does not work with the pro likethe button, layouts were
designed with these controllersin mind.

Mark Trobough (45:24):
You don't use the , at least the reproduction of
the original controller.
It just feels awkward on a on amodern pro controller, because
it wasn't designed with thatlayout in mind for a lot of
these games.

Brandon Hurles (45:33):
I really hope that we're able to order more
than one, but I'm not going toget my hopes up because if I can
only order one, I'm not goingto open it.

Mark Trobough (45:40):
I'm sure down the road you'll be able to.
They're going to sell these andyou're going to have third
parties that eventually startselling them too.

Brandon Hurles (45:46):
But they look really good quality I mean as
good quality as the original.
Obviously they're using all thesame parts and stuff like that,
and I can see myself using thatmore than any of the other ones
, because when they continue toadd the GameCube, I'm super
nostalgic for the GameCube.
There's so many good GameCubegames that I can see myself
using that quite a bit.
So I'll definitely be trying toget that day one, if I can, for

(46:09):
sure.

Mark Trobough (46:12):
I mean, yeah, I would.

Brandon Hurles (46:13):
Yeah, but you're not really a GameCube fan, so,
oh my god, this guy.

Mark Trobough (46:19):
That's why I have like half a dozen GameCube
games on my shelf but do youhave pokemon xd?

Brandon Hurles (46:24):
that's all.

Mark Trobough (46:25):
I never had pokemon xd.
Well, that's right, any ofthose, those console pokemon
games to the switch that's,that's the problem with you oh
my god, you don't know you don'tknow a good pokemon game or
like pokemon, coliseum ornothing.
Take her to leave itosseum ornothing.
Take it or leave it.
Battle Revolution or nothing.

Brandon Hurles (46:45):
Gale of Darkness , that's a good game?
I don't know what they say.
That's what they say.
Yeah, what do we got next?
This is a rumor.
Apparently, we got a new Niergame in development.
Again, like I said, rumorCreators are collaborating on a
new project and many believe itcould be a new near game in

(47:05):
development.
Again, like I said, rumorcreators are collaborating on a
new project and many believe itcould be a new entry in the
series.
Square Enix recently celebratednear his 15th anniversary with
a live stream teasing a newnovel, upcoming concerts and
merch.
So I know, uh, me.

Mark Trobough (47:16):
And Mark are largely really good.

Brandon Hurles (47:18):
So yeah yeah, I'm a massive fan of near
automata huge, I've been nearautomata.

Mark Trobough (47:25):
I've played a decent amount of the the near
remaster or the replicateremaster.
It's pretty good game.
It's good.

Brandon Hurles (47:31):
But to me it doesn't touch automata well,
it's the.

Mark Trobough (47:35):
Essentially it's a they refine the gameplay of
near because they were doingnear.
Even the remaster version it'sstill rough around the edges
with the gameplay.
It's's also like a 360 PS3 eragame.

Brandon Hurles (47:46):
But Platinum Games is nothing but great stuff
.
I mean Bandana and all thestuff that they do, so they
always put out bangers.
A new Nier game is coming.
I'd expect a new Nier game tobe coming.

Mark Trobough (48:00):
I mean they used to take several years.
It's been like what, like what?
Seven, eight years since near Ilike that.

Brandon Hurles (48:05):
Yeah, I only came twice over.

Mark Trobough (48:07):
I've got on the ps4 and switch I think I think
it's worth at least to playthrough once.
Yeah, yeah, because I thinkthey also came out and said for
automata that uh, he put in allthose endings in just because I
was saying you need more contentfor the game, so just put, put
in a bunch of BS endings for thegame.
Yeah, pretty much You're justall but the all.

(48:28):
But the main five endings arejust different death endings
essentially for your for prettymuch, yeah, yeah.
So it's just such a good game,man, I really this is one of
those games where the gameplayis good but it's definitely
really carried by the story ofthe game yeah, it definitely is
I agree, you go back and playthis game not for the gameplay,

(48:48):
but because of the story,exactly, yeah, so hopefully this
is true and hopefully we aregetting a new Nier game.

Brandon Hurles (48:53):
That'd be great.
We also got Borderlands 4reveals it's four new vault
hunters a cast of four playablevault hunters players will be
able to choose from.
Following the sequel's release,gearbox introduced fans to the
new Siren and Exo Soldier,showing off some of their unique
abilities and teasing the othertwo Vault Hunters.

(49:16):
So, mark, you got the video upthere.

Mark Trobough (49:21):
For our audio listeners.

Brandon Hurles (49:22):
We've shown a video here talking about some of
it, but we've got a.

Mark Trobough (49:27):
I don't know I watched this and I was like it's
neat.
I wasn't stoked on this.
Still, borderlands 3 left asour taste in my mouth and this
just kind of looked like more.

Brandon Hurles (49:39):
Borderlands 3.

Mark Trobough (49:41):
Quasi looks like a.

Brandon Hurles (49:43):
It looks better, but it doesn't look like what
you would.

Mark Trobough (49:47):
It doesn't look as good as it should look better
than it does I guess it looksbetter, but it should look even
better than it looks good, butit looks also like it like a,
like it looks sanitized, lookslike a corporatized game.
Like this game had to gothrough hr before it, you know,
got released.

Brandon Hurles (50:06):
Essentially well , after playing tiny team, I
mean I have I guess the, I guesswhat I think of uh was it?

Mark Trobough (50:11):
it looks better, but soulless at the same time,
like they're, they're literallydoing this because of the money,
not because of the well, theyhave the passion for it.
At this point where borderlands1, 2 and, to some degree, the
pre-sequel you know you could atleast with borderlands 1 and 2
you could feel the the passionbehind the game and it just
feels like it got successful andit got kind of corporatized.
Like a lot of triple a games dothey?

(50:31):
They?
They look good, but you justfeel like the soul on a lot of
these games just doesn't,doesn't exist anymore, like
they're clearly doing thisbecause, well, they have to do.
It's kind of like what Halo anda lot of Call of Duty has
become.
It's just like, well, we haveto keep pumping out games
because we need this money.
We want to do what has workedin the past.
We want to do it safe insteadof taking a risk on a new IP.

Brandon Hurles (50:52):
Yeah, yeah, I don't have high hopes for the
game.

Mark Trobough (50:55):
I mean, I hope and again they did a risk on a
new IP and it flopped terribly.

Brandon Hurles (51:05):
I hope it's good , but I have no.

Mark Trobough (51:07):
It's one of those games where it's like I'm not
going to.
I was burned with Borderlands 3at launch, pre-ordering the not
just the game but thecollector's edition.
I'm like I'll wait and see.
Gearbox is going to have toprove to me that they deserve my
money for this game.
Because, well, I've gone backmultiple times to try to beat
borderlands 3 and it I justcan't like.
I go back and play borderlandsborderlands one's like 15 hour

(51:30):
game, to be fair but I go backand play borderlands 2 and even,
to a lesser degree, thepre-sequel, uh, and it's just I
can't.
I can't go back and beat 3,ideally, like I think.
I still think they peaked withborderlands 2.
I'm like the gameplay in someareas is better, but sometimes I
just prefer playing two betweenthe the writing and even the
gameplay and just all thecontent.

Brandon Hurles (51:50):
I think they peaked it with tiny tina, to be
honest with you.

Mark Trobough (51:53):
Well, that's just a that's just a dlc to
borderlands 2 no the originaltiny tina not not the one that
we played.
That was absolute dog crapthat's what I'm talking about.
I think that that peaked withthat game I mean they the
writing peaked with uh talesfrom the border.
That game was so bad, man, I'msorry that game, yeah between
that and new tales, you're likeI've got no faith in this game,

(52:16):
I just have no, uh faith ingearbox at all.

Brandon Hurles (52:18):
To be honest with you, I just don't faith in
Gearbox at all.
To be honest with you, I justdon't.
It's just yeah.
I love Dragon Guard.
I got it on the PS3.

Mark Trobough (52:29):
I guess going back to the other one, because
he was asking what no love forthe prior games?
I've never played the DragonGuard.
They're harder to get to.
I've talked or I've seen stuffwhere people will be like you're
better off just watching like asix hour YouTube video about
the story of those games andactually playing them.
Essentially it's a it's as yougo back in time between the near
games and into the dragon games.
It's just older gameplay thatwas refined and better with the

(52:51):
newer games.
So just the gameplay gets worseas you kind of go back to where
, like if you play those gamesback but trying to get into
those games now it's.
it's kind of a pain to playthose games.
You're better off just watchinga video or a gameplay of it
yourself than actually trying togo back and play those games.
I know people who havedifferent opinions on that.
That's just some of the stuffI've seen.

(53:12):
They're not the best games togo back and play.
They're not the best gamesgameplay-wise that have aged the
best from what I've seen.
Gotcha I've never played any ofthe Dragon Guard games.
I've been keeping an eye out tosee if I can see them, but I
haven't run into one yet.

Brandon Hurles (53:29):
Alright.
Well, we got free PS Plus gamesfor May 2025 revealed and we've
got Ark Survival Ascended, ps5only Bellatro and Warhammer
40,000 Boltgun.

Mark Trobough (53:47):
I guess it's probably worthwhile for people
for Bellatro.
I don't know anything aboutBoltgun, to be fair.

Brandon Hurles (53:54):
I've got it on PC, but I've never played it.

Mark Trobough (53:57):
I'd argue there's better games than ARK to play
in that same genre.
Yeah, I have no interest in it.
I think Rust games than arc toplay in that in that same genre.
But yeah, I have no interest.
Well, I think I mean rust.
I think rust is probably thebest game of that, of that base
building pvp gameplay style, butI don't know, maybe they fix it
, I haven't.
I think, uh, the old version ofarc.

Brandon Hurles (54:16):
I just didn't think was was good I didn't care
for it myself, so wasn't mything.
We also got an EA game shuttingdown on October 20th, and that
is Madden NFL 22 man, myfavorite Madden too.

Mark Trobough (54:36):
I was like I guess they're using different
servers at this point, likethat's such a shame if you're
playing online version of thesegames, you're probably just
playing the new one every singleyear, which I think is a waste
of money.

Brandon Hurles (54:46):
But like man, why are they shut down?
Madden nfl 22 though because?

Mark Trobough (54:54):
no, because it's not always playing anymore.
They're all playing madden 25or about to be 26, or something
like that what a shame, what ashame people that playden games.
You just get the new game.

Brandon Hurles (55:04):
You don't even enjoy video games anymore.

Mark Trobough (55:07):
Not these sports.
It's the same game every year.
Why waste your money?

Brandon Hurles (55:11):
Roster update, that's it.

Mark Trobough (55:13):
That's really all .
There is Roster update.

Brandon Hurles (55:15):
If you want to play the online.
You have to swap over to thenew game because that's where
everyone's at Biggest scam ingaming history.
I mean, it's the same formatfor FIFA.

Mark Trobough (55:25):
It's essentially loot box gambling for your
players and you go out and playwith them, so you have to spend
the money to get the goodplayers.
Yeah, I think it's likeUltimate Team or whatever they
have essentially, which isessentially their version of
Gacha, which is just loot boxesto get your characters Right,
their version of gotcha, whichis just loot boxes to get your
uh to get characters right.

Brandon Hurles (55:46):
Uh, what we got.
Next, mark trying to pull somestuff up here.

Mark Trobough (55:50):
Let me pull it up , uh.
I mean, we just talked aboutthe platinum games.
Uh, so there's a rumor outthere that platinum is working
on a live service game afterNinja Gaiden 4 comes out, okay,
and we don't really knowanything about that other than
there were job postings foronline action game and open

(56:13):
field game as far as some of thekeywords and some of the job
postings online.
So people were like, oh, arethey going to make an online
open world?
Uh, live service gameessentially.
And if they are going to like,what game are they gonna?
Are they gonna do with that?

(56:33):
because, plan them, some workedon a bunch of games yeah,
they've worked on a lot of stuffmetal Gear, rising, revengeance
, bayonetta, nier, automata,obviously the guidance stuff
because what they were saying,project GG is like, I guess, the
temporary title right now wedon't know if it's official or

(56:56):
that's just probably some kindof placeholder name but Gaiden
comes out.
I don't think it's come out yet.
All I know is it comes out.
I don't think it's come out yet.
All I know is it comes outsometime this year.
Yeah, it's not, yeah, but Imean the before that.
They are pretty much working onthe games and stuff like that.
They've worked on the, thewonderful 101.
They've worked on, obviously,the near games.
They've worked on, uh, starfoxzero, for whatever that is worth

(57:18):
.
Um, they've worked on, uh,they've done some work for the
final fantasy what's it?
16, infinite space, on the ds,grand blue fantasy, relink and
stuff like that.
So they've, they've worked on awhole bunch of different types
of games.
So is this going to be a new ipor they potentially working on
a multiplayer game, for I don'tknow, banetta, bayonetta or is

(57:41):
the next?
Well, it would be.
The net is another near game,or something like that.
Who knows?

Brandon Hurles (57:47):
yeah, that's a good question.
I mean, I don't know orcorrection.

Mark Trobough (57:52):
I mean, they've only worked on near automata.
But I mean, I would hope thatthe, the, if they're doing an
open world game, it wouldn't beat least be uh, it wouldn't be
near, yeah, yeah.
And if it is a near game, I'mlike oh man, it's gonna be
another five years before we get, you know, near three.
I don't think I can wait thatlong yeah, yeah, for sure, uh,

(58:16):
okay apparently one of their.
One of their uh.
Just because we just talkedabout one of their cancelled
games.
Lost order was supposed to bepublished under, uh, psy Games.
Who does the?
Uh, the horse girl, horse girlracing game?
Just because we just talkedabout one of their canceled
games.
Lost Order was supposed to bepublished under Cy Games.
Who does the Horse Girl racinggame?

Brandon Hurles (58:28):
Oh, for real On iOS.

Mark Trobough (58:31):
There was a closed beta in 2017, and then it
was canceled after that andapparently they probably moved
on.
I just thought that was neatbecause I was scrolling through
the page.
That's funny.

Brandon Hurles (58:41):
So we got Cyberpunk 2077.
Nintendo Switch 2 version has aunique Joy-Con feature.
Will support motion controls onthe Switch 2.
Swinging one of the Joy-Con 2controls around will be enough
to control melee weapons.
Gyro aiming is stillunconfirmed and I do believe I
take this with a grain of salt,but I do believe it also

(59:03):
supports the mouse mode as wellI could be wrong launch title.

Mark Trobough (59:08):
It wouldn't surprise me like I don't know
head.
They have to do that much morework.
But it'd be a great major titleto show off what the joy
probably the best game thatcould do the joy cons and stuff
like that yeah, because I reallywant to try out that mouse mode
.
So if it is a, uh, yeah it'sthe most realistic shooter to
actually do that, not some somesome demo.
Essentially Right.

Brandon Hurles (59:30):
Yeah, welcome Thor.
Yeah, right but switch two isthe best way to play cyberpunk
2077 on the go, cdpr says.
I think it's the only way youcan.
They've never looked to go.
Cdpr says I think it's the onlyway you can never look it up,
it is the only way.
Yeah, they never came out andsaid why, uh, they can't get it
to run on the steam deck, but Ido find it, you know, pretty
curious that uh probably thesame code we talked about last

(59:51):
week, where they had to do a lotof extra play, a lot of extra
work behind the scenes.

Mark Trobough (59:55):
I mean in the dlss, I think, had a lot to do
with being able to make this runon switch 2 and and because
steam deck doesn't offer that, II feel like it just wasn't
probably in the same vein they'dhave to do a lot of work for
probably not a lot of extramoney, where with the switch 2
as one of the few launch titlegames they they probably see the
opportunity to make a little,make more money than they would
probably on steam yeah with thewith the with the steam deck.

(01:00:17):
Usually you're you already havethe game, so you just transfer
it over and play it on yourSteam Deck.

Brandon Hurles (01:00:22):
I'm actually looking forward to replaying
this again, because, since thisis the complete edition, I
actually am looking forward toplaying it.

Mark Trobough (01:00:29):
It's got the DLC on I mean it's a good deal.

Brandon Hurles (01:00:32):
If you haven't played this before and you're
getting a Switch 2, that's agood deal for the complete game
and it runs well.
You know you're not running 60,you're running 40 frames, but
you can play it in 4K and itoffers all these other different
ways to play the game.
It's a good way to be able toplay the game, so I'm definitely

(01:00:54):
looking forward to playing itagain.
It's been a hot minute sinceI've played it.

Mark Trobough (01:01:00):
Yeah, right, played it.
So, yeah, right.
Yeah, I mean, at this point,wait and see, I don't.
I haven't made it my mindwhether I'm gonna pick it up or
not.
That's just kind of like whereI'm at with the game because
I've already bought it.
I've already bought it, I think.
I think I've only bought itonce on pc, but that's usually

(01:01:21):
that's like what I'm used toplaying it on.
So, yeah, I mean, I don't knowif I can make that, what this
guy?

Brandon Hurles (01:01:33):
Okay, so we also got.
Let's see here we got another,another Nintendo switch to game
leaks via age rating.

Mark Trobough (01:01:46):
So that's what we got here?
Yeah, because this one was agame that we have played before
on stream.
It was rumored to be SparkingZero.
That would be badass, based offof a spotty rate.

Brandon Hurles (01:01:56):
I would rebuy this game in a heartbeat if this
came out on Switch 2.

Mark Trobough (01:02:02):
Yeah, I mean I'm not good at it, but it's a.
It was a fun, fun fighting gameto play yeah, it's really fun
probably gonna be the thecompetitive dragonball game to
play for a while yeah, for surepretty good uh, pretty good
in-depth fighting game.
I'm not well versed on onfighting games, their
complexities, but it seemed likea fairly enjoyable game that
could be competitive yeah, yeah,I need to go back and play it

(01:02:26):
again.

Brandon Hurles (01:02:26):
Uh, I I never got through and played
everybody's story.

Mark Trobough (01:02:30):
I need to to pick it back up again, but uh
obviously they've had a lot inthe the characters, the diamond
stuff.

Brandon Hurles (01:02:37):
Yeah, I haven't checked out any of the diamond
stuff.
I haven't bought any of the dlcyet, but I I need to get back.

Mark Trobough (01:02:41):
I mean, this is actually coming out probably a
good good way to come back andrevisit the game.
Yeah you're not even truebefore then true, I guess the
question is are you have tospend extra money or all these
characters can be available toyou when?
yeah, my hope is that they'redoing some sort of like complete
edition for the switch to, andnot just like all the dlc yeah,
that would be great, then Iwould definitely buy it, for
sure I guess it depends on, likehow much more dlc do they have

(01:03:03):
planned for this game?
Then right, and if it, iscoming out.
Well, is it gonna be a lot?
Paul?
It's not, not gonna be a launchtitle but, like when it comes
out by determine whether or notit'll have all the dlc in in for
the game.
It would be neat to see, uh,yeah, essentially new games more
or less coming out on theswitch, because I mean, this
does come to the switch,probably comes out sometime in
the fall.
Holiday season makes sense.

(01:03:24):
Yeah, it would be like about ayear after when it came out.
For everybody else, yeah, or isit two years?
Uh, no, it'd be.
Yeah, it came out before.
Yeah, 2024.
Yeah, I'd go back and doublecheck.
I can't remember.

Brandon Hurles (01:03:40):
Yeah, this would be awesome when it comes to
Switch 2.
It's good to see, for sure.
And then we've got GameStop isactively investigating custom
Switch 2 bundle situation.
I actually saw the girl thatposted about this and complained
about it.

Mark Trobough (01:04:00):
I saw her tweet Was this the one where they were
saying you have to buy thisbundle.
Yeah, she pre-ordered theSwitch.

Brandon Hurles (01:04:07):
I wish I could remember her name so I could
pull up the tweet, but shetweeted it and GameStop noticed
it and basically they came outwith how about it blew up online
.

Mark Trobough (01:04:15):
It got a lot of traction.
It got a lot of traction.

Brandon Hurles (01:04:18):
Yeah, but GameStop said no, you traction,
it got a lot of traction.
Yeah, but, like uh, gamestopsaid no, you do not have to do
that to do the bundle situationand said they anybody who was
trying to buy a switch to andcouldn't because they were
trying to make them bundle,they'll make it right and sell
them a switch to, which is goodon them for for doing that but I
don't know how they they figurethat out exactly.

Mark Trobough (01:04:38):
But yeah, yeah, I don't know how they figure it
out exactly.

Brandon Hurles (01:04:40):
But yeah, yeah, I don't know how they figure it
out either, but I mean, GameStopalways tries to upsell you on
everything, Like they've alwaysdone.
That they're always, you know.

Mark Trobough (01:04:51):
But it's never been forced.

Brandon Hurles (01:04:52):
Never been forced.

Mark Trobough (01:04:53):
It was always an option.

Brandon Hurles (01:04:58):
You want to sign up for our GameStop rewards
today?

Mark Trobough (01:05:00):
You get a free magazine.
Not that Screw the magazine,but I shop there enough where
the rewards pays off for me inthe end.

Brandon Hurles (01:05:07):
Now I don't have one anymore.
Freaking sucks.

Mark Trobough (01:05:11):
You just gotta drive a little further away.

Brandon Hurles (01:05:13):
Yeah, it said.
Gamestop is asking effectivecustomers to send DMs regarding
custom bundle issues.

Mark Trobough (01:05:23):
Hopefully, whoever was doing doing that,
you know, gets the axe.
Yeah, that that is.

Brandon Hurles (01:05:27):
That is really scummy and by the axe I mean the
head chopped off good oldfrench revolution stuff all
right, so, uh, into some of thebigger news.
We got a couple of things hereleft.
We got GTA 6 is now delayed toMay 26, 2026.

(01:05:49):
I mean, I could have seen this.

Mark Trobough (01:05:50):
Yeah, so it looks like about a six month pushback
?
Yeah, about six months, yeah,which I don't know how long
they've actually been working onthis game.
I mean to be fair, like if youannounced it for 2025, shouldn't
it have already been more orless done?
Like I don't?
I don't kind of confused on whythey would have done this, or
do they?
They announce it like it's beenlike how long since five came

(01:06:13):
out, like a decade, decade plusit came out on the ps3.

Brandon Hurles (01:06:17):
I don't know.
It's been out.

Mark Trobough (01:06:18):
It's been out for way too long.
I thought it came like 2013 orsomething like that, something
like that, yeah it feels likeit's been out way too long to be
like bro.
You've had like a decade towork on this game yeah, it's
crazy.

Brandon Hurles (01:06:30):
Um I could.
I I saw this happening for sure.

Mark Trobough (01:06:35):
Um, yeah, yeah, because it pushed back out to to
may of 26, so you have like awhole other.
It's not even.
You have over a year now beforethe game comes out.
Like what A year?
And like three weeks at thispoint?
Yeah, it's only May 2nd now.

Brandon Hurles (01:06:54):
Yeah, it's still got a while.

Mark Trobough (01:06:55):
Instead of, like, six months, you have a whole
year.

Brandon Hurles (01:06:57):
The way that I see it is.
I'd rather a game get delayedthan pushed out and be crappy.
You know what I mean.

Mark Trobough (01:07:03):
There's enough games to play, yeah, but if
they're delaying this game bysix months, it makes you ask
questions like what's reallygoing on?
Were you not essentially readyfor this game to come out when
you announced it?
Did you announce it too early?

Brandon Hurles (01:07:15):
Good point.
I mean, you know it's hard totell.
Haven't you been working on thegame for 15 years?
Yeah right, oh my gosh, it'sbeen 75 years or whatever.
This one was crazy.
That came out today.
I was like whoa, this took mybreath away for a minute when I

(01:07:41):
saw it.
But apparently a Chrono Triggerremake may have accidentally
got leaked and this was reallyinteresting.
It says if that is true, that'sinsane.

Mark Trobough (01:07:50):
Arguably one of the best RPGs or JRPGs to ever
exist.

Brandon Hurles (01:07:55):
I would say the best.
In my opinion.
I think it is the best, butdeveloper Yuji hori allegedly
mentioned the game during acomic-con panel.
Uh, fans should keep in mindthat it's possible.
This is all a misunderstanding.

Mark Trobough (01:08:09):
This translation is always possible.

Brandon Hurles (01:08:11):
Yeah, it's possible.
But, man, I really, truly hopethat this is the case, because
we did get the ds remake butunfortunately it just like
wasn't the best remake of thegame.
It just didn't.

Mark Trobough (01:08:23):
It wasn't as good as the original game yeah, and
I thought the version that's onsteam it's either the ds or the
mobile version that was portedover I think it's the mobile
version, which is also kind ofshoddy.

Brandon Hurles (01:08:33):
And yeah, it's not the, not the, not the ideal
way to play.
But uh, yeah, I said chronotriggers forward to pc in 2018,
but it's been dormant ever since.
In the meantime, squaring nickshas been reviving some of the
classic jrpgs through remastersand remakes, and I mean this is
the perfect time for like, uh,like, a remake would be great

(01:08:53):
but like I went from the groundup, do a final, essentially what
they did for final fantasy 7.

Mark Trobough (01:08:57):
Maybe I don't.
I don't want it in like threeor four different games, I want
it in one game, in one go, butlike that level of quality of a
remake.

Brandon Hurles (01:09:05):
But what I was in is like I would love to see a
remake.
For sure, I would love to seethat quality of a remake, but I
would even be happy with gettinglike a remaster, the way they
did with, like, the lunarcollection and like the hd 2d
version essentially yeah andlike yeah yeah, I would like
that, but I also would be like Ireally wouldn't mind this being
the full.

Mark Trobough (01:09:24):
I would like a full remake as well.

Brandon Hurles (01:09:26):
I would like a full remake treatment too, but I
wouldn't be mad if we ended upjust getting like the remaster
treatment.
But, like I said, a remakewould be pretty badass.

Mark Trobough (01:09:38):
I'm curious if you're going to remake this like
and say you're actually.

Brandon Hurles (01:09:42):
This just prints money.
I don't know why you wouldn'tdo it.

Mark Trobough (01:09:45):
I think this has arguably got one of the.
It's probably my top 10 as faras the best soundtracks to a
video game ever.

Brandon Hurles (01:09:53):
It has an amazing OST I've got on vinyl.

Mark Trobough (01:09:58):
On the original hardware too.
It's just amazing what they didwith that quality of sound card
.

Brandon Hurles (01:10:03):
I have this on vinyl and CD, the soundtrack.
I love it.
It's just so classic, man.
It's one of those ones I reallywill just throw on just to
listen to.
I love listening to video gamesoundtracks.

Mark Trobough (01:10:18):
A lot of games have forgettable soundtracks,
but this is one of those games.
I think for me it's also on parwith uh uh, not the, the uh
stellar blade.

Brandon Hurles (01:10:30):
I absolutely love the soundtrack yeah, that's
a good soundtrack too, for sure, all right.
And then for our last thing, uh, which has raised a lot of
controversy uh, recently we'vegot uh xbox announces price
increase for games and consoles.
So they pretty much a lot ofpeople talking yeah, it's uh a

(01:10:50):
lot of people talking heretrying to figure out you know
what, what's xbox doing exactly?
Because, uh, you know, it seemsthat they it just doesn't make
sense because the Xbox isalready not selling, so I don't
quite understand what theirthinking is here, but I'll share

(01:11:13):
.

Mark Trobough (01:11:13):
They can't afford to have their profit margin
shrunk at all.
That's what's happening here.

Brandon Hurles (01:11:18):
So, right here, they got xbox price hikes in may
2025.
So if you want to get it, getit now, uh.
But the elite wirelesscontroller series 2 core will be
going up ten dollars.
The wireless controller series2 full will be going up uh,
twenty dollars.
The series s 512 gigabyte willbe going up to $379.

(01:11:41):
Series S 1 terabyte $429.
Series X digital $549.
Regular Series X will be goingup to $600.
Series X 2 terabyte.
Galaxy Special Edition will be$729 was originally $599.
Xbox stereo headset $6499.
Wireless headset $119.

(01:12:02):
Wireless controller core $64.99.
Controller collar $69.99.
Controller special edition$79.99.
Limited edition $89.99.
Everything is going up in price.
You can expect that, probablyfor the games as well, to be
hitting probably the $80 pricetag is my assumption.

(01:12:26):
So it does say starting holiday2025 new Xbox first party game
prices will rise to $80, in linewith some of the Nintendo
Switch 2 titles, and really it'sonly just one title that we
know about that's the $80, whichis Mario Kart World.
But yeah, I mean I expect allthese companies to follow suit.
I mean, I already saw it cominganyway, to be honest with you,

(01:12:48):
that this was going to happen.
Regardless of whether Nintendopriced Mario Kart at $80 or not,
this would have happenedregardless.
I mean, it just would have.

Mark Trobough (01:13:01):
No, I agree, but I mean it just would have.
So no, I, I agree, but I meanit just feels like god, come on.
Nintendo is like now we're notgoing to increase our price.
Xbox is like nah, jack that uplike a hundred dollars yeah, I
mean it's like uh, whatexclusives do you got?

Brandon Hurles (01:13:14):
like, uh, what do you got to?

Mark Trobough (01:13:16):
offer with your hardware, like what's the
benefit of getting it on yourxbox versus getting on a tv or a
pc or a milk carton, becausegame pass is on literally
everything at this point yeah,it's on everything I'm surprised
it's on the switch yet yeah,yeah, I mean I I don't know what
they're thinking, becausethey're already not selling the
hardware, so it's likeincreasing the price, you're

(01:13:38):
gonna sell less hardware yeah.

Brandon Hurles (01:13:40):
I just don't quite understand.
And we're only two years outfrom the new platform, so it's
like you know.
Here's a great question.
Mark, I want to ask you yourhonest opinion.
So, PS6, we know you're twoyears away.
Whatever the next Xbox is, whatdo you see the MSRP being for
the PS6?

Mark Trobough (01:14:00):
I don't know At least $700 at this point.
I think it's going to be theprice tag where it's going to be
like?
Is it really worth the money toupgrade at launch?

Brandon Hurles (01:14:14):
I mean it's a great question.
I think it's going to be $800,but yeah, it's not going to be
cheap.

Mark Trobough (01:14:22):
They're essentially building a
mid-to-low tier PC.
They're essentially building amid-tier PC, I mean.

Brandon Hurles (01:14:28):
I see us getting to the point of $1,000 consoles
, because if you look at the PCspace, right like $1,000
spending on a PC is absolutelynothing, Right you?

Mark Trobough (01:14:39):
see money on just a graphics card.
It's like it's like a mid tier,like a lower, like a lower and
mid-tier pc yeah, yeah, I meanit's.
It's not getting you far, likeif you spend 12 to 1500 on a pc,
depending on if you can findsales.
That's about a mid-range pcright there.
Yeah, you know it does about.
About the 1440p pretty well.

Brandon Hurles (01:15:01):
Yeah, if you want 4k, you're going to spend
closer to 2000 on a pc butconsidering you know these,
these consoles are, their bigpush is pushing 4k and and all
that stuff, it's like I couldsee us hitting the thousand
dollar price point on a console,and not it's sometime in the
near future.
I mean, I I see the ps6probably being like 800, but to

(01:15:25):
me, honestly, at this point Iwouldn't be shocked if it was a
thousand yeah, I really wouldn'tthis increase five pro is 700,
right, so like and that thatthat was marked when it came out
like what, like who's payingfor that?
yeah, it's, it's.
I just I I don't even know likewhere gaming is going at this
point, like it's all crazy, it'sgoing to be less.

Mark Trobough (01:15:45):
There's just going to be less people that
upgrade and it's, I think,financially it's going to start
backfiring because, well, peoplearen't going to, aren't going
to spend $800 on a console.

Brandon Hurles (01:15:52):
We say that point.
You're about all the peoplethat said happen.

Mark Trobough (01:16:03):
The game price but like 450 is far more as
before is a far more affordableand it's a very fair price, I
think, especially what you'regetting, the upgrade, because
that's usually what you wereused to for modern, you know,
console hardware essentially.
Uh, and it's it.
Yeah, it lags behind, but likeI think it just means if you
have to get a console, well, theswitch is like by far the

(01:16:24):
cheapest thing on the market.
So, yeah, the switch too.
I think it'll just help theswitch too for for quite a while
if it's going to be thatexpensive, because at that point
you're better off spending 800and just getting a, a lower tier
in pc.
At that point, yeah, i'reprobably going to get equivalent
performance.

Brandon Hurles (01:16:41):
Yeah, I definitely recommend PC nowadays
If you can save up.
Buy one part at a time, save upfor it.
Just buy one part at a time andeventually you get to put it
together.

Mark Trobough (01:16:52):
Because, especially with all the Xbox
game passes on PC, you'restarting to get Microsoft or
Sony games on the PC Steam sales.
It's like you can get all ofthem everything but a Nintendo
game all in one place, more orless on a PC, and the hardware
is expensive.
Like you said, if you use Steam, the hardware is the expensive
part.
You can get games dirt cheap ifyou're willing to buy them on a
sale and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles (01:17:10):
Yep, yep, cheap games on Go If you're willing to
wait like a year or two of thegames you can get it for like
half price or something likethat.

Mark Trobough (01:17:18):
Like, yeah, it's got arguably got the biggest
digital library out there.
So, yeah, I mean it's pro, it'sit's pro and con it is.
I do think this couldpotentially help help the switch
to as long as they don't theydon't increase the price down
the road.
Uh, yeah, for sure.
I did see something funny thatI wanted to bring up.
There's like two differentthings I saw about the uh, uh,

(01:17:41):
about gta 6, that I thought wasactually kind of funny.
Uh, so this first one, uh,essentially I don't know why, I
just I bookmarked these.
I was like I should probablybring them up.
Uh, every other, every othergame seen GTA 6, uh, is delayed
to 2026, meaning they actuallyhave a chance at winning game.
Yes, hell yeah hey, come Hell.

Brandon Hurles (01:17:59):
Yeah, hey, come on, baby, come on.
Yes, come on, ah yeah.

Mark Trobough (01:18:06):
You can't tell me .
That's not accurate, because ifGTA 6 is going, whatever year
it releases, it's winning gameof the year.
Yeah, there's no doubt about itthat game will print money and
you know it's just going to win.

Brandon Hurles (01:18:17):
Yeah, it's like it's there's no competition.

Mark Trobough (01:18:23):
no, it's definitely gonna win for sure as
well as uh, I guess, if youwant to, if you want to crap on
them, uh, oh, hang on.
Let me bring it back up.
I had this one as well, wherethe uh this is posted over on on
twitter with video game history, where the ps2 had three GTAs,
where GTA 5 had threePlayStations.

(01:18:43):
It's ridiculous how long wewere just talking about this,
how long GTA 5 has been around.

Brandon Hurles (01:18:49):
I know it's crazy, man, it's crazy.
I miss the days of like SanAndreas and Vice City that were
like you didn't need these big$200 million games.

Mark Trobough (01:18:59):
I prefer those games over, like four or five,
like I thought they were bettergames In my opinion you get like
small little spinoffs, like onthe DS or something like that,
like you don't always need tospend 10 years making this
massive game.
You can make smaller scalegames that are far more
affordable and put them out to,like you know, the fans.
But obviously GTA online cameout and it was just print money.

(01:19:20):
So it's like, well, what's thepoint of making a new game?
We just just sit back and makemoney.
It's what it's what valve doeswith steam.
It's why you're not getting anyother half-life games, because
I'm like, right, right, why theyjust make?
They just sit back and justprint money with that, with that
platform.
Why?
Why make another orange box?

Brandon Hurles (01:19:34):
essentially, yeah, pretty much, pretty much,
but I think it's uh, I thinkit's all we got for this week.

Mark Trobough (01:19:40):
Appreciate everybody watching and listening
.
Good stuff to talk about, butalso I guess one of the first
time in a while was pretty light.

Brandon Hurles (01:19:48):
Yeah, I mean, which is a good thing?
I mean, we usually got.

Mark Trobough (01:19:52):
Every week was going to be like a big week.

Brandon Hurles (01:19:55):
Yeah, I think we did pretty good for this week.
We had some fun things to showoff and and some interesting
stuff to talk about, so not toobad.

Mark Trobough (01:20:04):
I'm trying to save up money for his uh, uh,
whatever the um for his evieplushie no, I see the prices.

Brandon Hurles (01:20:16):
I cannot believe that guys, I'm just gonna.
Only you were trying to tell methat those were like 30 and
then they're like 300 I'm sorry.

Mark Trobough (01:20:25):
The one thing that I was reading was giving me
bad stuff like that's not thelife.

Brandon Hurles (01:20:28):
Yeah right, I was about that's not right.
I was about to say like 30bucks, that was that was.

Mark Trobough (01:20:32):
That was the information I was reading was
like.
I was like like that's kind ofsus for like the, maybe the
small ones you hold in your handyeah, three hundred dollars I'm
just saying yeah, life-sizegardevoir.
Now you've got life-sizevaporeon.

Brandon Hurles (01:20:46):
I'm just saying uh, mr pokemon batman no laws mr
coffee asked the last minutequestion.
He said do you think the reasonfor the delay is rockstar does
not think it will sell enough onconsole, only so delay it for a
year release on console and pcat the same time?

Mark Trobough (01:21:02):
I think it's a possibility.

Brandon Hurles (01:21:04):
It's a possibility, yeah.

Mark Trobough (01:21:06):
I wasn't even thinking about that.
I forgot it was only going torelease on console first, which,
to me, baffles me.
Why not have it release acrossthe board at launch?

Brandon Hurles (01:21:14):
Yeah, I mean it very well, could be the reason
it's possible.

Mark Trobough (01:21:21):
I'm sure we'll find out, is the?
Is the, you know a?
lot of people are going to wantto play on pc because of the
mods, so modding is probablyjust usually most games, if
optimized correctly, generallyjust run and perform better on
pc because you're just going tohave, if you have a good, decent
pc, you just have betterhardware essentially so you
could run it better on it 4k,higher frame rates and stuff

(01:21:43):
like that.
But right, yeah, I don't.
I was shocked when it wasn'tgoing to release across the
board all at once.
Or do you think there's like,oh, they're going to delay it a
year and they're going to giveus a switch?

Brandon Hurles (01:21:53):
Well, my, my thought was that they had some
Exclusivity limited deal withPlayStation or release it on
their platform first, for likethe first six months.

Mark Trobough (01:22:02):
That's what I they're they're going to make.
They don't need the, they don'tneed it Money.
They don't.
They definitely don't need it.

Brandon Hurles (01:22:08):
It's just what I thought at first.
So I mean it's hard to tellwhat what the game plan is, but
if they release in console PC atthe same, that'd be a good move
.

Mark Trobough (01:22:18):
I think it makes the most sense.

Brandon Hurles (01:22:19):
Yeah, for sure.
But yeah, we have.
We appreciate everybodywatching, listening, everybody
on the audio platforms.
Definitely leave us a review, alike, follow, subscribe or
whatever the platform allows,and definitely check us out over
on the YouTube youtubecom slashat game junction media.
We are live on the podcastevery single Friday, 8 PM
Eastern Standard Time.

(01:22:40):
Then we also stream a gameevery single Saturday at 8 pm
Eastern Standard Time.
Do we know what we're streamingtomorrow, mark?
Are we doing Schedule 1 again?
I don't think we determined whatwe were streaming.
Yet Do you want to do Schedule1 again?
I mean we can.
Yeah, let's just do Schedule 1again.
It was pretty fun.
Yeah, I had a good time with it, so we'll do that.

(01:23:01):
Uh, yeah, it'll be a good timeand it's getting me adjusted to
the mouse and keyboard control.

Mark Trobough (01:23:06):
So I mean, it's not that, it's not that hard,
you just need to.
You need to force yourself.
You say that, but I've beenusing the controller my whole
life yeah, that's the.
That's the problem.
You have to force yourself toget used to the keyboard and
mouse so you can realize howsuperior it is to a controller.

Brandon Hurles (01:23:20):
All right, whatever you say, well, hope to
see you all tomorrow as westream Schedule 1.
Like I said, 8 pm EasternStandard Time for any of those
that are watching live orwatching this video after, and
then if you are listening on anyof the audio platforms,
definitely check out the YouTube.
We got all kinds of contentthere.
We'll see you all later.

(01:23:40):
Have a good one, guys.
Peace out everybody.

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